Another gingerbread tree!

Plus a few extra ingredients!

I started this tree much like the pine tree tutorial below.  I stacked construction grade gingerbread rounds with a hole cut in the middle.  This allows a tall cinnamon stick to go down and act like an additional support.  Pack in gingerclay around the cinnamon stick to "glue" it in place.  This may take a few days to dry but once it does it shouldn't go anywhere.  

Next, I baked a few rudimentary pieces as a base.  This included a hollow round piece to act like a pipe bend or elbow.    And then I baked a branch.  I also took this time to start layering thin pieces of raw dough around the tree trunk to cover up the stacked pieces.  

For this tree, I knew in my mind I wanted a little mouse on top of the house (look it rhymes!!).  So adding in an additional support for the big branch just made sense both story and structure wise.  

You can use a mix of gingerclay and fondant to create vines to wrap around if you like during this process as well.  Adding fondant helps create the elasticity needed so it doesn't break as it gets thinner.

Next, you can start adding in some color as well. 

The next step is where the fun experimenting came in.  I found a few pictures on Pinterest and fell in love with a texture.  I went to the grocery store and just roamed the aisles until I found millet seed in the gluten free section.  

I used the Americolor brand of food coloring in three different shades of green and colored the seeds. Then I placed the seeds on separate baking sheets and baked at a low heat of 200 degrees for about 15 minutes.  I just wanted the color to dry out.

I then made an agar agar mixture doubling the recommended amount of powder versus water according to the bag.  Again, keeping the colors separate, I dumped in the millet seed and stirred until all the millet was coated.  I then crumpled up some aluminum foil and dumped small spoonful on the foil to create small bundles.  

They look weird I know.  But they come together like magic!  If a piece didn't fit a spot quite right, I didn't use a knife on a bundle.  It created too sharp of an edge obviously.  The agar was firm BUT you could still break apart the pieces to create smaller sections which was very convenient.  

The bigger pieces were glued on to the branch with isomalt but the smaller pieces held nicely with tylose glue.  

Keep working up and over with the different colors and you will end up with a really cool piece!